Basketball: Ryan girls earn first 5-5A win

Four days after the Ryan opened district
play with a loss against the unofficial favorites to win the district, the Lady
Raiders replaced the zero in its win column in convincing fashion.

Ryan earned its first District 5-5A win
of the season with a 44-24 victory against the Hebron Lady Hawks on Tuesday
night at Billy Ryan Gym.

It was a much-needed victory for the
Lady Raiders, as six teams are fighting for four of the district’s playoff spots.

“It’s just good to get that first
[district] victory under your belt, that’s for sure,” Ryan head coach Monesha
Allen said. “We just wanted to put some little pieces together tonight.”

Some of those little pieces included
keeping senior post Danielle Richardson on the court and out of foul trouble.
That piece partially crumbled as Richardson picked up two fouls before the end
of the first quarter, forcing Allen to put one of her seniors on the bench.

However, Richardson never fouled out and
finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“People just respect her,” Allen said.
“They respect her size. They just respect her inside and feel that she can
score. When you have people that are respecting the inside, it opens up the
outside.”

Senior guard Teana Ogden led the Lady
Raiders with 13 points, and Tichina Coleman added 10 points in the victory for
Ryan (10-13, 1-1 district). Molly Pospichal had a team-high seven points for
the Lady Hawks.

Both teams had their respective
struggles in the first half. Ryan struggled with hanging onto the ball, while
Hebron (9-11, 1-1) had a tough time producing points.

The Lady Hawks made five of their 32
shots in the first half. On the last two 3-pointers hoisted by Molly Pospichal
to close the half, Hebron head coach Stacy McDonald sat on the bench and
pleaded for the ball to go into the basket. One of Pospichal’s long-range
jumpers went in and was quickly answered by a 3-pointer by Ryan’s Jeffreyonna
Holley.

Holley’s basket closed the scoring in
the first half, and the Lady Raiders nursed an 18-11 lead going into the second
half. Ryan only made 30 percent of its shots in the first half.

The Lady Hawks continued to struggle in
the second half and only scored four field goals in the final 16 minutes.

Ryan cemented the win in the fourth
quarter. The Lady Raiders’ lead never dipped under nine points, and they closed
the game with nine unanswered points

Ryan rebounded from a district-opening
loss to Flower Mound Marcus last Friday with a win on Tuesday, a definite sign
of progress for a team battling for a playoff spot.

The fourth quarter of Ryan’s nondistrict
boys basketball game against Frisco Lone Star resembled a boxing match where
one fighter won enough rounds to win the fight and attempted to survive the
final round without getting knocked out.

When the final buzzer sounded and a
game-winning 3-pointer clanked off the front of the rim, the Raiders had barely
avoided the knockout punch.

Ryan held on for a 49-47 victory in
overtime against Class 3A’s Frisco Lone Star on Tuesday night.

The Raiders’ five-point lead with 2:30
left in the game fizzled, and they were forced to win their final nondistrict
game of the season in the extra period.

“It’s always tough when you’re the team
that’s forced into overtime,” Ryan head coach Bryce Overstreet said. “We didn’t
execute as efficiently as I would have liked down the stretch in regulation,
but I’m extremely proud of my kids for going into the final four minutes and
making the plays.”

Ryan (13-6) was led by senior point
guard Gilbert Jackson’s 19 points, with eight of those points coming in the
fourth quarter and overtime. Senior guard Nick Jones added 11 points.

The Raiders, who had trailed by four
points at halftime, built its lead in the fourth quarter and slowed the pace of
the game down, forcing Lone Star (10-11) to press the ball while Ryan was on
its side of the court. The Rangers slowly chipped away at the lead, and the
Raiders had the ball with 20.1 seconds left.

Ryan was trying to inbound the ball, and
the pass hit senior guard Montarius Banks in the back as he was running toward
the basket. Lone Star recovered the ball, dribbled down the court and passed
the ball around until Clay opened up on the right side of the court and heaved
a long 3-point attempt.

The ball went in just before time
expired and the visitors’ side of Billy Ryan Gym erupted as the Rangers had
forced overtime.

The score was tied again late in
overtime, and Jackson, as he dribbled in the middle of the paint, was fouled
with 5.9 seconds left and put on the free-throw line. Jackson needed to make
the first free throw in order to shoot the second.

Jackson’s first free throw bounced off
the rim and into the basket. Jackson dropped his arms and his head hung for a
few seconds in relief before he swished the next free throw. Lone Star’s final
shot, a double-clutched 3-pointer as time expired, bounced off the front of the
rim.

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